


look at us now

by kaerstyne



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Amagi Yukiko-centric, Coming Out, Developing Friendship, F/F, First Gay Crush, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Referenced Shirogane Naoto/Tatsumi Kanji, supportive friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 16:54:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16201709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaerstyne/pseuds/kaerstyne
Summary: The TV world has a way of dragging all your repressed feelings up into the light—but sometimes you can rekindle an old friendship in the bargain.





	look at us now

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Inkyrius](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkyrius/gifts).



** May 17 **

Yukiko didn't know when it was she'd stopped talking to Kanji.

They'd talked when they were kids, of course. It was a small town, and their mothers got along well, so it wasn't uncommon for the two of them to end up spending time together, whether they liked it or not. Not that Yukiko had disliked Kanji—he'd been shy and quiet, rather than loud and rowdy like most of the other boys her age, so she'd actually liked him quite a bit. They would play house together, or complicated games with stuffed animals, and she'd thought of him as a friend, at the time.

But somewhere along the line, they'd grown up and become Amagi Yukiko, the frigid inn heiress, and Tatsumi Kanji, the violent delinquent, and they'd stopped speaking to each other at all.

She hadn't been surprised to see him on the news a few days ago—fighting biker gangs and yelling at camera crews was exactly the sort of thing she expected from him, these days. She _had_ been surprised to see him talking to that other boy, especially looking so awkward about it. She hadn't seen much of the conversation, but for those few minutes he'd reminded her of the Kanji she knew as a kid, and she couldn't help feeling nostalgic.

Which just made it that much worse when he showed up on the Midnight Channel that night.

 

* * *

 

** July 07 **

Yukiko stood at the door to Kanji's house, hovering her finger over the doorbell and trying not to look as nervous as she felt. She hadn't figured out any way to make this conversation not awkward, so she was just going to have to suffer through it.

She readjusted her grip on the paper bag she was holding, and rang the doorbell.

After a few moments Kanji's mother slid the door open, her face lighting up when she saw Yukiko. "Yuki-chan! I haven't seen you in ages. What brings you here at this time of night?"

"I wanted to speak to Kanji-kun, actually, if he's in?"

"Oh, of course! I noticed that he's been spending more time with some of the third-years lately. I think it's wonderful." She beamed at Yukiko happily. "I can go get him for you. Would you like to come in and have some tea?"

Please no, she needed to be able to escape as soon as the conversation was over. "Oh no, ma'am, that's all right. I should only be a few minutes."

"Well, if you're sure." Kanji's mother went back into the house to fetch Kanji, and Yukiko found herself alone with her nerves again.

Eventually the door reopened and Kanji emerged, looking understandably confused. "Uh, hey, Yukiko-senpai. What's up?"

Yukiko realized she'd been shifting her weight from foot to foot and forced herself to stand up straight. "Um. I wanted to apologize to you for something." Might as well get straight to the point.

Now Kanji looked even more confused. "I don't remember you doing anything lately you need to apologize for."

"Er, no, it wasn't recently, actually." That was part of why this was so uncomfortable—she really should have done it a month ago. "It was a while ago. When we first took you to the TV world after defeating your Shadow, remember?"

"I mean, I remember that happening. Still dunno what you mean."

"You were asking me about when I was kidnapped, and I, um. Punched you."

"Oh yeah, that." He frowned. "Why did you do that, anyway?"

"I..." Yukiko chewed at her bottom lip. "I misinterpreted something you said, and reacted badly to it. It wasn't your fault, and I shouldn't have taken it out on you. I'm very sorry." She reached into her bag and pulled out the box of traditional sweets she'd bought earlier, then offered it to him, trying not to meet his eyes. "Here, this isn't much, but..."

Kanji accepted the box, though he still didn't look any more enlightened about the entire situation. "Uh, thanks? I mean it wasn't a big deal, really, I've gotten punched way harder than that before."

"By biker gang members?"

"Yeah. Amazed my nose isn't broken yet."

"You shouldn't fight with them so much, you know. You'll get in trouble with the police, and worry your mother." It was true, but she was pretty sure he knew that already, and mostly she was just happy to have the conversation move on to literally anything else.

"I only fought 'em off that time because they were so loud they kept Ma up at night!" he grumbled. "And then everyone made it into some big thing."

She sighed. "Right. Well, um, anyway." She started folding up the bag she'd brought, to carry it more easily on the way home. "That was all I came by to say, so. I apologize, again. I'll try to be more careful next time."

"Next time?" Kanji blinked. "Oh yeah, about that—what was the thing I said that made you go off, anyway? So I don't say it again."

Crap. "Ah, you said... you asked if I 'came out' to everyone, too."

"Oh." He thought about that for a moment. "What's wrong with that?"

She had really, really been hoping she wouldn't have to explain this. "It means... 'Coming out' to someone means telling them that you're gay."

"Oh. _Oh_." His face turned slightly pink. "I didn't mean it like that, though. 'Cause I'm not gay, I don't think. And you're not either, right?"

"...Right." If only that were true. "Like I said, I misinterpreted." She could feel her fingers crumpling the top of the paper bag and tried to make them relax their grip. "Anyway, I'll be going now. I'm sure you have homework and things to do."

"Yeah, sure."

Yukiko turned to leave, and she was about to start walking away when she heard Kanji call out to her again. "Uh, Senpai?"

She glanced back at him. "Yes?"

"Y'know... Even if I did mean it that way, you don't gotta punch a guy for it. I know I was the one freaking out about it before, but if a guy likes other dudes, or something, he can't really help that, right? So you shouldn't go around punching people for saying stuff like that. Like, the other me was an obnoxious asshole, so maybe he deserves it. But if it's just a normal dude talking to you about 'coming out' or whatever, it's not like he means anything bad by it. So... I think you should try not to hit people, for that kinda stuff." The words came out in a rush, and Kanji's face looked like he'd surprised himself by saying them. Yukiko was certainly surprised—she'd never expected to hear that kind of speech from him.

But, well... "You're right." It was still hard to look him in the eye, and she was glad she was partially turned away. "Thanks, Kanji."

"Uh. Sure?" He didn't look entirely recovered from his unexpected outburst.

"I'll see you at school tomorrow," she added quickly, then took the opportunity to flee before he could say anything else.

 

* * *

 

_"It's not like he means anything bad by it."_

Kanji's words stuck with her on the walk home, and she turned them over and over in her head trying to figure out what to do with them.

Honestly, she hadn't understood at first why she'd even been upset about the "coming out" comment—hitting him had just been her instinctive reaction, and everyone else seemed to take it in stride, so she hadn't needed to understand.

Once she'd started to think about it, though... It should have been obvious he hadn't meant it _that_ way. He hadn't "come out" like that after his confronting his own Shadow either, so why would he be asking her about it? He'd just meant revealing the secrets in her heart to the others when they saw her Shadow. Obviously.

So why had her first reaction been to lash out?

She'd realized the answer almost before she'd even finished asking the question in her mind, but it had taken her a few more weeks before she was willing to actually admit it to herself.

It was because she was becoming more and more certain that she was gay herself, and she had absolutely no idea what to do with this information. Should she act on it? Deny it? What would her mother think if she found out? What would _Chie_ think, if she found out about Yukiko's feelings for her?

It was all too much when she tried to think about it, so she'd opted to just pretend none of it was happening. Which had worked out perfectly well, up until she accidentally punched their newest teammate for a casual comment that wasn't the slightest bit offensive to anyone with their head on straight.

It was awkward to apologize so long after the fact, but it was important—she wasn't sure she'd be able to look Kanji in the eye again without feeling guilty about it, otherwise. At least this way it felt resolved, even if Kanji hadn't really understood what was happening.

Or maybe he'd understood better than she thought, really, considering he'd somehow managed to say exactly the right thing. It wasn't a bad thing. It wasn't something she could help. It wasn't something to punch people over. It was...normal, or at least more normal than she'd been thinking of it. And now she knew there was at least one person who would probably accept her feelings if she could get up the courage to voice them out loud, even if the two of them didn't have the closest relationship anymore. That was something, and it helped.

Maybe it was about time to start actually dealing with this, instead of just burying it deep inside and hoping it would go away.

 

* * *

 

** August 14 **

The day after the incident with the TV crew, Yukiko was still feeling protective of the inn and wanted to _do_ things for it. Which was how she ended up spending the whole day running around doing various tasks, from helping the staff clean the rooms to helping her mother with bookings, and now found herself in the shopping district picking up a few emergency items for the cooks.

She was on her way back to the inn, clutching two small bags of groceries, when she heard someone call out to her. "Hey, Yukiko-senpai!"

She stopped and turned toward the textile shop, where she saw Kanji standing in the door waving at her. "Oh, hello, Kanji-kun."

"Hey." Kanji scratched the back of his head. "So, uh, how is everything at the inn? I heard some asshole TV crew was there yesterday."

"Oh, that." Yukiko couldn't help grimacing. "They told us they were from a travel show, but they were actually from a 'news of the weird' show that wanted to do a special about how the inn is cursed. And the reporter was _very_ rude when I told him to leave, so I yelled some things I probably shouldn't have..."

"Nah, the dude totally deserved it. Ma heard the whole thing from Kasai, and she was pretty mad when she was telling me about it." He grinned. "Plus it sounded like you were pretty cool when you were chasing them off."

Yukiko felt her cheeks turn pink. "It didn't really feel that way at the time. I just got so angry when he was insulting the inn and the waitresses."

"Yeah, I get it. If he'd tried to pull that shit with the textile shop I probably would've beat his ass." His eyes suddenly widened, and his expression turned sheepish. "I mean, uh, I've been trying not to do that kind of thing anymore, but, y'know." He cleared his throat. "So I think you did pretty good. You got rid of him, and you didn't say anything _that_ bad. Good job, Senpai."

"Thanks. I'm glad people thought so." Her bags were starting to grow heavy, and she shifted them to her other hand. "I should probably get going—I still need to bring these things back."

"Yeah, sure. Just wanted to see how it was going, after yesterday."

"I appreciate that," Yukiko said with a smile.

 

* * *

 

** September 20 **

They'd had a busy weekend at the inn, with several families staying at the same time, and as a result a number of routine duties had been pushed back until later in the week. One of them was picking up an order at the textile shop, and Yukiko volunteered to do it after school on Tuesday, hoping to check on Kanji at the same time.

He'd been in a foul mood ever since Naoto was kidnapped. They were all worried, of course, but Kanji was the one who kept demanding they head into the TV and rescue him as soon as possible, and it had taken Souji a while to convince him to hold off. Kanji had finally agreed, grudgingly, but he clearly wasn't happy about it, and he'd been irritated and snappish ever since. Rise had told her he'd been yelling at one of their classmates today over something stupidly minor, and the teacher had made him go stand out in the hall.

So Yukiko was concerned about him, and picking up something for the inn was a good excuse to see how he was doing.

Neither Kanji nor his mother were in the front of the shop when she got there—there was a note saying they'd stepped out for a moment—so Yukiko occupied herself with looking around. The brightly colored samples of dyed cloth along the walls were the same as usual, but there was a small floor display near the door that she hadn't seen before. She'd only glanced at it briefly when she came in, but now she saw that it was full of knit dolls shaped like various animals—a rabbit, a lion, a fox.

She'd picked up a penguin doll to examine more closely when she heard a door slide open behind her, and a somewhat terse voice said, "Welcome to Tatsumi Textiles."

She turned around, still holding the doll, to see Kanji putting away the note on the counter. He blinked at her. "Oh, Yukiko-senpai. You here to pick up the order for the inn?"

"Yes, please." She held up the doll. "Did you make these?"

"Er, yeah. Ma kept bugging me to put some of 'em out for sale at the shop, so there they are." His lips quirked. "Dunno what a textile shop's doing selling stuff that's already knit, but people seem to like 'em. We sold a few already."

"I can see why. They look well-made, and they're very cute." She almost wanted one for herself, but she was a bit old to be buying stuffed animals.

"'Course they are. Everything I make is cute." He looked pleased with himself as he said it—he'd certainly come a long way since when he'd first met the Investigation Team. "Uh, the order you need was the one for the yukata, right? I gotta grab it from the back."

"That's right." Yukiko put the penguin back in the display, somewhat reluctantly, and walked back over to the counter while Kanji headed to the back room. Now that she was actually talking to him, it seemed like he was doing okay, really. Maybe she shouldn't say anything? But it could just be because she'd opened with talking about the dolls, and that put him in a better mood...

He came back with a wrapped bundle and started rooting around the counter for the rest of the paperwork. Now or never, probably. "So, Kanji-kun... Have you been doing all right recently?"

He started, banging his hand on the table. "Shit! Uh." He frowned. "Someone told you about class today, didn't they?"

"Rise-chan mentioned it. She was worried about you." She paused, steeling herself for the next part of the conversation. "I am too, actually. You've been pretty worked up ever since Naoto-kun was taken."

"No shit." He exhaled sharply. "I get why Souji-senpai doesn't want us clearing out the whole lab at once, but I don't like it. We need to hurry up and rescue _that stupid idiot_ already."

"We will, soon. We always have a few weeks before the fog comes in, so he should be fine for the next few days, until we get there. We've always managed it before."

"I _know_ all that," he grumbled. "I just...don't want to leave him in there by himself for any longer than he has to be. What if his Shadow does something weird to him? He's just a little dude, and that place does a number on you if you don't have the glasses."

"I'm sure he can figure something out. He is pretty smart."

Kanji scoffed. "Too smart for his own damn good. He's the one who got his ass kidnapped in the first place."

"That is true." She considered her words carefully. "I know you're worried, Kanji-kun, and I can't blame you for that. But it's not good for _you_ to be so anxious about it that you're snapping at people for no reason."

"Yeah." He was quiet for a moment, and eventually pushed the order form he'd pulled out across the table for her to sign. "Kinda hard to make it go away, though."

Yukiko signed the paper and handed it back to him. "I'm not sure about during school, but when you're at home, maybe try doing something to take your mind off of it? Those dolls seem like they'd require a lot of concentration—maybe work on more of them?"

"I tried making a scarf yesterday, and that didn't work at all." His brow creased as he considered. "But you're right about the dolls, I have to pay a lot more attention to what I'm doing with those. So maybe." He put the wrapped bundle in a paper bag and offered it to her. "Got any animals you want to see?"

She had to think about it for a minute. "Have you ever tried making a Persona?"

"Huh." He looked thoughtful. "No, but it'd definitely be a challenge. A fun one. Good idea, Senpai."

"I hope it helps."

"Yeah. Me too."

 

* * *

 

** September 26 **

Two days after they rescued Naoto, Yukiko picked up another order from the textile shop. Kanji's mother gave it to her with her usual smile and didn't say anything in particular, but when she got home and looked in the bag, there was something else in there, nestled next to the towels for the inn. It was an intricately knit doll the size of her forearm, and somehow it looked exactly like Konohana Sakuya, feathers at all. Kanji really was talented, when he put his mind to it.

There was a small piece of paper tucked into one of the doll's wings, with a single word scrawled on it—"Thanks."

 

* * *

 

** October 31 **

The morning after the team stayed overnight at the inn, Yukiko woke up in the girls' room to find that Chie had rolled out of her own futon in the night and ended up on Yukiko's, curled up next to her on top of the covers.

This was, to put it mildly, distracting.

Yukiko got up before Chie did, and neither of them said anything about it as everyone packed up their things and headed home, but she couldn't stop thinking about it as the day went on. Chie in only a yukata, her body pressed against Yukiko's back, warm enough to radiate heat even through the covers, her breasts—

Oh no.

She really needed to do something about this.

She didn't want to talk to Chie about it yet. She had no idea what to say, first of all—she'd never even confessed to a boy before, never mind a girl. The boys that followed her around at school and tried to ask her on dates were hardly good examples. Were you supposed to write a love letter and stick it in their shoe locker? That didn't really make sense for Chie, though, it seemed too impersonal considering how long they'd been friends...

And then there was the problem of Chie's reaction. She didn't even want to think about that part yet. It was too terrifying to consider the idea of losing her best friend if things went wrong.

Much better to tell someone else first. It would be practice, if nothing else. And then the whole thing would be out there, in the world, instead of going around in circles inside her head.

And that was how, after her chores for the inn were finished for the day, she found herself standing in front of the textile shop. She barely remembered the trip there—she'd been lost in thought the whole time. At first she was going to tell Souji, but apparently he was busy helping Yosuke at Junes, and actually she wasn't sure that would be much better than telling Chie. She didn't think Souji was the type to judge people over this kind of thing, but if he did... it would hurt, a lot. She wasn't ready for that yet.

Kanji, though. Kanji had already said he was fine with it. And his obvious crush on Naoto wasn't exactly the most heterosexual thing in the world, even if they did know the truth about her now. He would probably understand, or at least not look down on her.

She entered the shop hesitantly; it was still business hours, so someone else might be in there. But there was no one, other than Kanji's mother sitting in her usual place. She smiled when she saw Yukiko. "Yuki-chan, good afternoon! Are you picking up for the inn again?"

"No, ma'am, I wanted to talk to Kanji-kun about something..."

"Oh, of course. I'll go get him for you." She stood up slowly, but paused before turning toward the door. "I'm glad to see you two are becoming friends again. You got along so well when you were young, it was a shame when you stopped talking." She sighed. "But that's partially Kanji's own fault, isn't it. It's hard to make friends with the attitude he's had for the last few years. You and Souji-kun have been good influences in turning that around, I think."

"Thank you, though I think he's done most of it himself, really." Yukiko gave her a small smile. "But I'm glad to be friends with him again, too."

Kanji's mother nodded, pleased, then headed to the back of the shop to get Kanji. Yukiko waited, trying not to fidget with nerves, and looked through the increasingly large display of stuffed animals to distract herself. Her favorite of the latest batch was probably the owl, though the horse was quite good too...

She jerked back upright at the sound of the door sliding open again, and looked over to see Kanji had appeared. He looked rather tired—had he had a hard time sleeping at the inn last night? "Hey, Yukiko-senpai. Uh, did I leave some of my stuff behind or something?"

"Ah, no, that's not it." She was still holding the owl doll, she realized, and put it back down in its place on the display. But then she had nothing to do with her hands, so maybe that was a mistake. "I wanted to talk to you about something, actually. And, um, it might take a while, so maybe we should go inside...?" This definitely wasn't a conversation to have in the middle of the shop.

Kanji stared at her for a few seconds in surprise. "Uh. Sure, I guess."

A few minutes later, they were situated in Kanji's room with two cups of tea, which his mother had been only too happy to make for them, once she realized Yukiko was going to stay for a while. Yukiko had never been in Kanji's room before, but it looked about like she would have expected—a TV, some bookcases full of manga and textbooks, and two low tables: the empty one they were sitting at, and another one covered in yarn and sewing materials and what looked like a half-mended pair of pants.

Kanji took a sip of his tea, then put the cup down on the table and cleared his throat awkwardly. "So. What's up?"

Well. Now that she was here, how was she supposed to do this? "You remember a few months ago, when we talked about the whole...'coming out' thing?"

"You mean the thing where you punched me and then apologized a month later?"

Yukiko felt herself blushing with embarrassment. "Yes. That." She tried folding her hands on her lap to keep them steady. "Um. The reason I reacted that way to that term was because, well...I think I might be gay, myself. But I didn't want to admit that, so I got upset when I thought someone else had said I was."

There. She'd said the words. Now she just had to stare at her teacup and wait for his reaction.

There was dead silence for a few long seconds, which felt more like years, before Kanji responded. "That...makes sense. I mean, that's kinda what I was doing, too. When I kept yelling at you guys for calling me 'strange'. So I get it." He drank some more of his tea. "I already told you I was cool about the punching thing, though, you didn't need to come explain it again."

"No, I know. I just... I wanted to tell somebody. It was getting hard to—to keep it inside." Her voice was shaking. She really wished it wouldn't do that, it was making this even harder than it already was.

Kanji definitely noticed it, too, because his eyes were wide when she glanced up at him through her eyelashes. "Uh... Senpai, you sure I'm the one you wanna talk to about this? Souji-senpai's way better at this kinda thing. Or Chie-sen—"

"No!" she blurted out, then clamped a hand over her mouth. "I mean. I do want to tell them. But I didn't know how they would react, and I thought you would probably be okay with it..."

"Oh." He considered that for a moment. "Well, I am okay with it, if that's what you're all worried about. You're still Yukiko-senpai, even if you like girls." He blinked. "Wait, does that mean you like Chie-senpai?"

She was blushing again, even harder this time. "I, er. Yes. I do."

"Ohhhhh." His eyebrows wrinkled. "I guess that explains some stuff."

She was surprised enough at that that she actually glanced up to look at him properly. "What stuff?"

"I dunno. I know you guys are best friends and all, but sometimes it's like you get extra happy just because she's around. And you touch her more than other people." He shrugged one shoulder. "Just some little stuff. And you freaked out when I said her name just now."

Geez, if she was so obvious about it that _Kanji_ had noticed, she was really in trouble here. "I don't know how to tell her."

Kanji sighed and braced his elbows on the table, resting his chin on his hands. "Look, Yukiko-senpai, I'm really not great at this kinda thing, but... I dunno, I think you could just tell her? Chie-senpai's a pretty direct person, I don't think she'd want you to beat around the bush with it."

"That's...true." Yukiko let out a long exhale. "I just don't want her to think badly of me if I do it."

Kanji scoffed. "She's not gonna. She likes you too much. As a friend, I mean, I dunno how she feels about, y'know, gay stuff. But she's not gonna suddenly stop being friends with you. She's not like that."

She felt some tension drain out of her shoulders at that. She knew all of this already, of course, intellectually, but hearing someone else say it was deeply reassuring. "You're right."

"Yeah." He scratched the back of his neck. "I really think you should talk to Souji-senpai too. He'll have better stuff to say. But, uh." He coughed. "I'm glad you told me? Kinda honored, actually."

Yukiko smiled, a bit weakly. "Thank you for listening. It helped a lot."

"Good." Kanji stood up abruptly and scooped up both of their teacups. "I'm gonna go make us more tea, since yours is cold now. I'll be back in a minute. We can talk about something else. Like, I dunno, school or the TV world."

"You could tell me what all that screaming was about at the inn last night."

Kanji groaned. "Nope, never talking about that again, ever," he said, and then escaped through the door before she could ask anything else.

Yukiko slowly unfolded her hands and took a deep breath in and out. That hadn't gone too badly. Better than she'd expected, even. Maybe this would turn out okay, after all.

 

* * *

 

** December 25 **

Yukiko had hardly been able to do anything but smile all day, even before she found out Nanako-chan was coming home. She'd been on cloud nine ever since her—date? that counted as a date, right?—with Chie yesterday, and it was hard not to show it. And then Chie held her hand as they walked back to the Dojimas' house with the cake ingredients, which made it even harder to keep the stupid grin off her face. A few of the others snuck glances their way, but she didn't even care about that right now.

Rise did finally ask them about it while they were making the cake. Yukiko felt herself tensing up automatically and couldn't bring herself to answer, but Chie was more than happy to do it for her: "Yeah, we're dating now."

And then Yukiko realized she really didn't need to worry so much, because all Rise did was squeal and say "Finally!", then run over and wrap them both in a giant hug. Naoto was more awkward about it in comparison, but she still smiled and offered them congratulations.

Souji gave her a knowing smile while they were eating the cake, but none of the boys actually said anything until they were cleaning up the kitchen later, when Kanji came up to her. "So I guess it went well, with Chie-senpai?"

She let the stupid grin she'd been holding in all day out, just for a minute. "It did. Really really well."

Kanji gave her a lopsided grin back. "See, I told you it'd be fine."

"You were right. Thank you again for talking with me about it, Kanji-kun, it helped a lot."

"Yeah, no problem."

Yukiko's expression shifted into something a bit more sly. "So now it's your turn to ask Naoto-kun out, right?"

Kanji sputtered and almost dropped the bag of trash he was carrying.

 

* * *

 

** April 12 **

The textile shop looked very different today—the usual displays had been moved to the side, and several low tables had been set out instead. Each table had a small pile of supplies on top of it: yarn, scissors, several pairs of knitting needles. There were a few people seated already, mostly older women that Yukiko recognized as regular customers.

Yukiko chose an empty table at the far end of the shop for herself, situated near the door to the back area. The usual table for taking orders had been pushed into a corner opposite her and was covered with a number of complete knitted pieces—scarves, hats, socks, and of course animal dolls. Examples, probably.

The door to the back slid open a few centimeters, and she saw Kanji's eyes peer out of it, glancing around the room. He stopped when he spotted her, and slid the door open wider to come partially into the room. "Senpai! I didn't expect to see you here."

Yukiko gave him a wide smile. "I didn't want to miss your first class! And I'm really curious to see how you make something like that Konohana Sakuya doll you made before."

"Well, we're probably not gonna get that far today." Kanji rubbed the back of his neck. "I know most people want to learn about the dolls, but some of them are pretty complicated if you haven't done any knitting before. 'Specially that one. But we'll see how it goes, I haven't done this before so I dunno exactly how it'll shake out."

"We'll find out, I suppose. Good luck with teaching."

"Thanks." He smiled shyly. "Thanks for coming, Yukiko-senpai, it's nice to have someone I know around."

"Of course. That's what friends are for, after all."


End file.
